Engineering - Rigging is a skill that allows you to make quick repairs and devise makeshift contraptions out of spare parts and salvaged materials. With this skill, you can get broken equipment and machinery up and running again without the need for a proper workshop. Additionally, you can use your ingenuity to re-purpose salvaged materials to meet your immediate needs, such as turning a broken vacuum bot into a remote sentry with the addition of a PDA, a solenoid, an AK47, and some duct tape. This skill is also useful for salvaging materials and spare parts from broken robots and equipment, which can be used to create new devices or improve existing ones. With Engineering - Rigging, you can get the job done with whatever resources you have available.
The rigging skill allows you to make repairs to devices without a workshop to hand. You cannot improve the quality of an item beyond 3 with this skill but you can get it up and running again. You can also use this skill to devise contraptions out of Spare Parts that might get you out of sticky situations, or repurpose machinery to meet your immediate needs.
Each rigging task you attempt will have a difficulty rating based on the complexity of the repair, the availability of materials, and the quality you're trying to achieve. The base difficulty for field repairs is 10.
When you attempt to jury-rig repairs or create makeshift devices, you will make an Engineering - Rigging skill check against the task's difficulty rating. The GM may apply Boons or Banes based on various factors, such as available spare parts, time pressure, familiarity with the equipment, or quality of improvised tools.
Rather than spending skill points to move up skill levels, You may instead spend skill points to purchase any of the following tricks.
Cost: 2 Skill points
Requires: Tactical Training
Frequency: Once per Lockdown
Effect: You don't need to know what's wrong, you have a hammer and percussive maintenance skills. You can get something working again by giving it a trusty hammer whack. This automatically succeeds on simple mechanical or electronic devices, bypassing the need for a skill check.
Cost: 2 Skill points
Requires: Tactical Training
Frequency: Once per Lockdown
Effect: Your eye for useful components is unmatched. When scavenging parts or materials from broken devices, you automatically find +2 additional spare parts beyond what your roll would normally yield. You can also identify the most valuable components at a glance.
Cost: 2 Skill points
Requires: Tactical Training
Frequency: Once per Lockdown
Effect: You can repair or restore a device or piece of equipment in half the normal time. When time is critical, your hands move with practiced speed, allowing you to complete field repairs in 50% of the usual duration while maintaining quality.
Cost: 6 Skill points
Requires: Expert Training
Frequency: Once per Op
Effect: You can create a contraption or device out of spare parts that seems impossible. Once per rest, you can jury-rig a device that would normally require proper tools and a workshop. The GM should allow creative solutions that stretch believability - the AK47-wielding vacuum bot sentry is exactly the kind of thing this enables.
Cost: 6 Skill points
Requires: Expert Training
Frequency: Once per Op
Effect: You are a master at welding and repairing metal objects, even in field conditions. You can create permanent structural repairs without a workshop, weld together makeshift armor plating, or seal hull breaches. Your welds are as strong as factory originals and gain a +1d6 Boon when tested.
Cost: 6 Skill points
Requires: Expert Training
Frequency: Once per Op
Effect: You can find or repurpose materials in any environment. Even in seemingly barren locations, you can locate hidden sources of valuable materials, spare parts, or useful components. Make a Rigging check - on success, you find 1d4 spare parts even where none should exist.
Cost: 10 Skill points
Requires: Master Training
Frequency: Once per Mission
Effect: You can create an entirely new device or contraption using spare parts and your own ingenuity. This goes beyond simple jury-rigging - you can design and build a functional prototype of something that doesn't exist yet. It may be Quality 2-3, but it works and fills a unique need your squad has identified.
Cost: 10 Skill points
Requires: Master Training
Frequency: Once per Mission
Effect: You can reinforce or repair damaged structures even under the worst conditions. You can shore up collapsing buildings, repair spacecraft hull breaches mid-flight, or stabilize damaged bridges. Your structural reinforcements gain a +1d10 Boon to withstand further stress and last until properly repaired.
Cost: 10 Skill points
Requires: Master Training
Frequency: Once per Mission
Effect: You can repurpose any device or piece of equipment for a completely different use or function. A comm device becomes a jammer, a medical scanner becomes a motion detector, a vehicle engine becomes a generator. The repurposed device functions at Quality 2 in its new role but provides exactly the functionality your squad needs right now.
Each improvised tool grants a stacking Boon when used for its designed purpose:
Boons apply when:
Repair & Maintenance:
Infiltration & Security:
Survival & Utility:
Combat & Tactical:
Improvised tools have limited durability:
"Rusty" Chen builds improvised tools during salvage operations:
Lieutenant "MacGyver" creates survival tools in hostile territory:
Agent "Shadow" improvises infiltration tools:
Discuss with the GM around what he will and won't allow. Some mods, like the one above, may also require a Programming Roll.
GM's are reminded of the Rule-Of-Fun with this skill, you can always pull in ambitious players by making **Spare Parts ** more specific, "Nope: that's going to require a Solenoid and you haven't got one of those, there might be one in Engineering though…."
As you loot dead robots, contraptions and abandoned workshops you can scavenge for **Spare Parts. ** The GM can have you make an Engineering roll if he feels **Spare Parts ** might be available.